Risking a ton in 8 seconds

Updated 6:13 am, Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Kanin Asay, 25, of Powell, Wyo., has endured several serious injuries in his bull riding career. But Asay outlasted his mount, Bloodhound, Tuesday to advance to Saturday's final.

Kanin Asay, 25, of Powell, Wyo., has endured several serious injuries in his bull riding career. But Asay outlasted his mount, Bloodhound, Tuesday to advance to Saturday's final.

Photo: Lisa Krantz / San Antonio Express-News

Risking a ton in 8 seconds

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It goes without saying riding rodeo bulls comes with a certain degree of risk.

Professional bull rider Kanin Asay, who is in the semifinals of the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, is acutely aware of those risks as he tries to win this year's event.

The top five money winners from the semifinal brackets move on to the final round Saturday night. On Tuesday night, the bulls won most of the battles, with only four of 10 riders holding on the full eight seconds.

Asay outlasted his mount, Bloodhound, for a score of 76, good for third in the go-round and a $983 paycheck.

“It's all reaction,” said Asay, the only two-time winner of the Xtreme Bulls tour championship.

The Powell, Wyo., native has endured his share of dings in his chosen profession, but he also has donated his spleen and almost an ear and hip in trying to conquer that 2,000-pound mass of muscle beneath him.

Asay recovered from the ruptured spleen in only two months after being tossed by a bull named Crybaby in St. Paul, Ore., on July 2, 2008. He also lost his right ear when the bull's horn ripped it off the first time he went airborne during the ride.

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“He kept bucking; he wasn't necessarily mean,” Asay said. “He was just doing what he was supposed to do.”

After Asay lost consciousness and lay in the dirt, the bull slammed down on his chest with both hind legs. That's when the spleen went along with a few ribs.

A medical team in Portland put Asay back together, reattaching the ear and removing the spleen in the process, but the young bull rider was in the chute two months later, winning the event in Lewiston, Idaho.

“Through a lot of prayer and believing, relying on God to get me through it, I was released at six weeks and started working out slowly,” Asay, 25, said.

Asay also is the proud owner of a 60-year-old right hip, compliments of a bull launching him outside the chute in February 2011. Doctors considered hip replacement surgery, but instead opted to keep the old hip and give it an upgrade.

“I went from April all the way to New Year's Eve before I got on another bull,” he said.

He made a terrific comeback in 2012, earning $129,868, including $28,274 when he won the Xtreme Bulls event here.

“Anybody will tell you that in San Antonio, there's so much competition, the stock is so good, you want to be able to compete and win at an event like this and the level it's at,” Asay said.

Asay also has battled a flu bug that caused him to withdraw from a rodeo in Jackson, Miss., last month, a symptom of his spleen surgery. His treatment includes an annual series of shots. He was asked what was worse — getting the shots or getting on a bull.